The Chicago Bulls opened the regular season Wednesday night with a 123-111 loss in New Orleans at the hands of the Pelicans. The team will try to acclimate new players and re-introduce familiar faces as the early weeks of the 2024-25 season play out. One of the players they have to re-introduce is Zach LaVine. LaVine missed a significant portion of last year due to injury and is looking for a rebound season.
LaVine got his season underway with a solid performance against the Pelicans, scoring 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 5-of-8 from deep. LaVine was not assumed to be a part of this Chicago Bulls team as the front office tried throughout the summer to ship LaVine out of town but could find no suitors. The first mission for the Bulls this season will be to build up LaVine’s trade value before finding some team to take LaVine off their hands as the rebuild continues to eviscerate the Chicago roster.
Good Start For Zach LaVine
The Chicago Bulls tried desperately to trade Zach LaVine this offseason. There were offers reported throughout the summer and as the 2024-25 regular season approached the Bulls attached more and more to LaVine and the offers became more enticing to prospective partners. The rampant speculation didn’t result in any transactions and LaVine ended up back in Chicago and healthy for the start of training camp and the preseason.
Despite the outside noise, LaVine comported himself well once it was clear he was going to be a Chicago Bull again this year and he has been focused on the court. His first performance of the season was solid. He scored 27 points and shot very well from the field. LaVine was a sharpshooter from distance, knocking down five of his eight attempts and shooting 10-of-17 overall. After ceding much of his playmaking touches to DeMar DeRozan over the past couple of seasons, LaVine picked up where he left off when he was the primary option for the Chicago Bulls.
Future In Chicago
LaVine’s opening night outing is hopefully the start of a trend where the UCLA product can lead the Chicago Bulls offensively and round out his game as he gets back into the rhythm of an NBA season. Chicago Bulls fans and the front office are banking on LaVine’s reversal back to his pre-DeRozan state when he averaged 27 PPG on better than 50% shooting and 41% from three. Fans are hoping that LaVine does that to help the Bulls, whereas the front office is hoping he does that for his trade stock.
LaVine was such a weak trade asset over the summer that even attaching a first-round pick and bringing back salary dump contracts wasn’t enough for a team. If he can establish himself this season and raise his trade value leading up to the trade deadline in February, the Chicago Bulls front office would be ecstatic. Trading LaVine would be one of the final moves of this roster teardown that the Bulls have done and if he nets them a solid return, that spells great news for Chicago and creates an open slot in the starting lineup for youngsters like Ayo Dosunmu, Chris Duarte, Matas Buzelis or others.
While Zach LaVine is still in Chicago, Billy Donovan and his staff have to do everything in their power to help LaVine succeed. There is proof of concept for LaVine being a valuable player for the Bulls and they have to do whatever they can to bring that out. Fans want to see the team get going early on and the quicker he starts to get back to form and is no longer a weak trade asset, the faster the wheels can start to turn on making 2024-25 a productive season for the Chicago Bulls.
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